Re: Hey, Books

oh also I got The Cheesemonger's Kitchen and some interesting looking thing called The Recipe Project by One Ring Zero, which combines recipes and playlists. I don't know who One Ring Zero are (I mean, they're a band, two guys, but other than that, I don't know), but the book is cool. From it I have learned that David Chang at Momofuku has a playlist in his restaurant that includes The Replacements, The Clash, The Kinks, Silver Jews, Palace Music, 801, and Can. I now want to eat there more than I did before, and I have been wanting to eat there for a while now. The book also includes a page called "A Wine Lover's Guide to Mexican Music". This may be the perfect gift.

edit: I just realized this book comes with a CD with a song for each recipe. The music is made by the band and the lyrics are the recipes, word for word. That might be a little much.

Re: Hey, Books

I managed to read 65 books in 2012, split between the adult stuff I read for myself and the Young Adult Lit I mainly read for work (although the best of it is strong enough to stand on its own). The best:

Grown-Up Division: Zeitoun by Dave Eggers, Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn, and We Need to Talk About Kevin by Lionel Shriver

Young Adult Division: The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky, It's Kind of a Funny Story by Ned Vizzini, and The Fault in Our Stars by John Green

Re: Hey, Books

Originally Posted by FEELS

Up next is Feeding Back: Conversations With Alternative Guitarists From Proto-Punk to Post-Rock. Interviews with J Mascis, Bob Mould, Tom Verlaine of Television, Johhny Marr, Keith Levene, and many more. Mike Watt endorses it and says it's one of the best books he's read on the matter. So I'm super excited for this!

Just finished this. Fucking great, and I'd definitely recommend it to anyone who likes those names listed above. (Paging Bmack). The author (David Todd) also interviews Lee Ranaldo, Rowland S. Howard, Jason Pierce, Kim & Kelley Deal, James Williamson, and Lenny Kaye, and more. As well as Michio Kurihara, Christian Fennesz, and Ben Chasney (Never heard of these guys, definitely have to check them out). I like how the book didn't have too much gear talk, just mostly focused on the guitar as a songwriting tool among other things.

Re: Hey, Books

Originally Posted by FEELS

Just finished this. Fucking great, and I'd definitely recommend it to anyone who likes those names listed above. (Paging Bmack). The author (David Todd) also interviews Lee Ranaldo, Rowland S. Howard, Jason Pierce, Kim & Kelley Deal, James Williamson, and Lenny Kaye, and more. As well as Michio Kurihara, Christian Fennesz, and Ben Chasney (Never heard of these guys, definitely have to check them out). I like how the book didn't have too much gear talk, just mostly focused on the guitar as a songwriting tool among other things.

This sounds awesome awesome awesome.

Michio Kurihara is the guitarist and primary voice behind Ghost, the japanese psych band (not to be confused with approximately 5000 other bands with the same name). Hypnotic Underworld is their magnum opus, one of the most dense and heady psych albums you'll ever hear. He's also been Boris' second guitarist for near on a decade.

Christian Fennesz is an experimental wunderkind. Just get Endless Summer and we'll talk afterwards.

Ben Chasny goes by the name Six Organs of Admittance. He does combinations of folk, psych and garage rock with tons of looping and some pretty intense song structures and volume changes. My favorite (and I'd say the most representative) Six Organs album is School of the Flower. He was also the lead guitarist on the last two Comets on Fire albums, which feature some of the best throwback psych/noise songwriting of the past decade. As a bonus, Comets on Fire reunited to play on the last Six Organs album, although I haven't yet heard it.

Re: Hey, Books

Originally Posted by bmack86

This sounds awesome awesome awesome.

Michio Kurihara is the guitarist and primary voice behind Ghost, the japanese psych band (not to be confused with approximately 5000 other bands with the same name). Hypnotic Underworld is their magnum opus, one of the most dense and heady psych albums you'll ever hear. He's also been Boris' second guitarist for near on a decade.

Christian Fennesz is an experimental wunderkind. Just get Endless Summer and we'll talk afterwards.

Ben Chasny goes by the name Six Organs of Admittance. He does combinations of folk, psych and garage rock with tons of looping and some pretty intense song structures and volume changes. My favorite (and I'd say the most representative) Six Organs album is School of the Flower. He was also the lead guitarist on the last two Comets on Fire albums, which feature some of the best throwback psych/noise songwriting of the past decade. As a bonus, Comets on Fire reunited to play on the last Six Organs album, although I haven't yet heard it.

It's such a gem! Stumbled upon it at work and knew I had to snag it. Damn, thanks for the rundowns! Those three actually had the best sections in my opinion, especially Michio. His explanation on what inspired him to write Sunset Notes was perfect. I'm definitely gonna check that out. Endless Summer by Fennesz sounds amazing as well! Ahh these past months have been the best period for music discoveries in my entire life.

Re: Hey, Books

I finished With the Animals. It was okay. The translator admitted off the bat that the wordplay of the original couldn't translate. I think a literal translation with notes would have been better. As it is, it just gets old. You get used to the weird way he talks and there's not a lot else going on to keep it interesting.

Re: Hey, Books

Ditto. I loved Zeitoun. It's probably my favorite of all those I listed.

I'm currently in a weird "let's read books that were the inspiration for TV and movies" trend. I'm currently reading Elmore Leonard's Get Shorty, and before that I read Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? (which was also my first exposure to Philip K. Dick) and Dearly Devoted Dexter.

I enjoyed Electric Sheep, but in some ways I felt like I couldn't give it an honest read because I've seen Blade Runner so many times. I find the Dexter series interesting, but the author's strength isn't plotting, which is a problem for a thriller. He does a bang-up job with characterization – I actually prefer most of the characters in the books to their counterparts in the TV series, especially Dexter himself, who's darker and funnier – but the storytelling is sort of scattershot and secondary to Dexter's far more compelling internal monologue.

Re: Hey, Books

plodding through 'A Farewell to Arms' this afternoon and nearly finished on Book V's Chapter 39. At the same time trying to keep up with Hemingway's boozing. The original drinking game, right? Drink if he orders a beer to have with the morning papers, drink if he tells his woman he loves her, etc. Have a lot more potentially interesting ones in the queue:

Days and Nights by Konstantine Simonov
Doctor Fischer of Geneva or the Bomb Party - Graham Greene
The Delicate Prey by Bowles (although his last one was for the most part pretty gash)

Re: Hey, Books

Originally Posted by roberto73

Ditto. I loved Zeitoun. It's probably my favorite of all those I listed.

I'm currently in a weird "let's read books that were the inspiration for TV and movies" trend. I'm currently reading Elmore Leonard's Get Shorty, and before that I read Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? (which was also my first exposure to Philip K. Dick) and Dearly Devoted Dexter.

I enjoyed Electric Sheep, but in some ways I felt like I couldn't give it an honest read because I've seen Blade Runner so many times. I find the Dexter series interesting, but the author's strength isn't plotting, which is a problem for a thriller. He does a bang-up job with characterization – I actually prefer most of the characters in the books to their counterparts in the TV series, especially Dexter himself, who's darker and funnier – but the storytelling is sort of scattershot and secondary to Dexter's far more compelling internal monologue.

Androids Is the only instance I can think of where I enjoy the movie more than the book. The book is good but isn't nearly as gritty and dark as the movie.

Currently finishing up The World According to Garp and I absolutely love it. Next up is a choice between two books I got for Christmas: A Hologram For The King by Dave Eggars and Strength in What Remains by Tracy Kidder. Any suggestions? I'll wind up reading both but unsure which one to start off with.

Re: Hey, Books

Do Androids is a very different work than the book, which has been the case for every PKD adaptation other than A Scanner Darkly (one could make an argument for Confessions... being close but). I think the book has a lot more interesting ideas and works well as a book; the film is one of my favorites and has just such a great mood.

You should read more Dick, Roberto. I would push Martian Time Slip, Ubik and V.A.L.I.S.

Originally Posted by getbetter

If you can't make the deadline you cant make the deadline. I didn't stop playing pokemon last night for nothing.

Re: Hey, Books

Originally Posted by Iamwelting

Androids Is the only instance I can think of where I enjoy the movie more than the book. The book is good but isn't nearly as gritty and dark as the movie.

Currently finishing up The World According to Garp and I absolutely love it. Next up is a choice between two books I got for Christmas: A Hologram For The King by Dave Eggars and Strength in What Remains by Tracy Kidder. Any suggestions? I'll wind up reading both but unsure which one to start off with.

I haven't read any Kidder, but I enjoyed A Hologram For the King. It's another of Eggers' thoughtful pieces about modern society. Of all his works, it reminded me the most of They Shall Know Our Velocity in that it's a bit unstable and unknowable much of the time. It was a good read.

Re: Hey, Books

Re-reading one of the Lovecraft collections and as much as I love him, his stories can get very repetitive. Curious news item -> some cult folklore stuff coinciding with first item -> further personal embroilment with odd goings on -> 20 pages about how the horror is indescribable and not of this world.

I've been trying to do a story a day by Borges but not quite keeping up. It's definitely a better approach than trying to plow through several at once. Short as they are, they pack in more kaleidoscopic ideas than many full length books (some of them pretty much are just his ideas for books condensed into faux-reviews). Completely confounding stuff, but delightfully so.

Re: Hey, Books

Originally Posted by SoulDischarge

Re-reading one of the Lovecraft collections and as much as I love him, his stories can get very repetitive. Curious news item -> some cult folklore stuff coinciding with first item -> further personal embroilment with odd goings on -> 20 pages about how the horror is indescribable and not of this world.

I've been trying to do a story a day by Borges but not quite keeping up. It's definitely a better approach than trying to plow through several at once. Short as they are, they pack in more kaleidoscopic ideas than many full length books (some of them pretty much are just his ideas for books condensed into faux-reviews). Completely confounding stuff, but delightfully so.

At the Mountains of Madness was a very enjoyable read for me.

On a similar note: Anyone here read House of Leaves?
I am about 300 pages in and I am having a fantastic time reading it. Tedious? Yes at times, but I am just taking it all in stride and enjoying it.

Re: Hey, Books

I loved the main story of House of Leaves and was consistently annoyed by the story about Johnny or Joey or whoever the tattoo guy was. That book has the single best chase scene that will ever be in a novel though. If you haven't read it yet, you'll definitely know what I'm talking about as soon as you get to it.

Re: Hey, Books

I felt the same way. I thought the house story was fantastic and well written, and that the Johnny Truant "look at me I'm writing 'could of' and 'should of' so you can tell this character is a certain type of person" shit was extremely heavy-handed and boring.

Re: Hey, Books

I'm intentionally refraining from letting anything in this book annoy me, otherwise the thousand tangents, footnotes, side stories, and essays (some of which seemingly mean nothing) would make this book a very unpleasant read. Oddly enough, I find Johnny's stories refreshing/funny/sad/interesting.
And I am assuming I haven't got to the chase scene yet, for the only chase I can think of is Holloway and his crew getting lost and being hunted for by Will and the two other guys.
Oh and I appreciated the spoiler free comments from you two

Re: Hey, Books

It took me a few months mostly due to my own sloth but I finished W.G. Sebald's Austerlitz last night. I don't have much to say about it at the moment, but I'll recommend it to anyone interested in the construction of memory and its intersection with trauma. Or, you know, if you enjoy pages-long sentences and intentionally muddled narrative positioning.